Book review: Five decades later, Edmund Fitzgerald still commands interest

Fifty years have passed since the Edmund Fitzgerald sank on Lake Superior on Nov. 10, 1975, with no survivors among its twenty-nine crew members. “The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald” by John U. Bacon is a fitting tribute to the ship and crew.

In reality, the story of the Edmund Fitzgerald has been told and re-told. Most familiar is the 1976 Gordon Lightfoot song “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.” On the other hand, the book’s treatment of the song is revealing. On that fateful night in 1975, the Gordon Lightfoot, according to Bacon, received news that the Edmund Fitzgerald was missing. Lightfoot, himself an experienced recreational sailor (who had to his credit completion of the annual Port Huron to Mackinac race) immediately gathered all print news regard